Case Studies

Over the past decade, many of the largest brands in the world have entrusted our collective management team with more than $1 billion in print and marketing communications supply chain spend. We've helped them improve brand compliance, get to market faster, reduce supply chain risk and have delivered over $200 million in net savings.

US Foods is one of America’s great food companies, serving independent and multi-unit restaurants, healthcare and hospitality entities, government and educational institutions. With $23 billion in annual revenue, US Foods employs more than 20,000 people nationwide, and markets brands such as Chef’s Line®, Metro Deli®, Rykoff Sexton® and Stockyards®.

“SupplyLogic is the functionality behind our transformation and a key contributor to our success.”— Marshall Warkentin, SVP Marketing, US Foods

Challenge

In 2010, CEO John Lederer took over the company’s century-old portfolio and together with Senior Vice President of Marketing, Marshall Warkentin, decided to completely transform and modernize the business. This would include a new brand identity to reflect the deep changes they were making.

The company had a highly decentralized environment for ordering print, branded materials, secondary packaging and marketing communications. Because of this, US Foods was facing a fractured brand with a lack of control over programs at the field level. Unifying the many US Foods brands under a new corporate identity would require gathering the disparate business units together to create greater economies of scale and brand continuity. Marshall chose SupplyLogic as his enterprise-wide solution partner to put his strategy into action.

Solution

To meet the challenge, SupplyLogic created the “US Foods Marketing Store” – an enterprise wide brand delivery platform that combined a simplified user experience, a supplier panel aligned with the company’s decentralized footprint, an on-site account management team, and a robust set of analytics to measure the performance of strategic growth initiatives.

SupplyLogic’s solution has become the hub around which the company delivers its unified brand experience to the marketplace. US Foods constituents leverage the platform for all marketing communications, collateral, branded merchandise, operational print, and labels.

Results

Marketing Efficiency – US Foods experienced significant savings across their marketing supply chain to help fund innovation and growth initiatives. The organization reduced inventory waste to less than half the national average.

Brand Compliance – By aligning more than 1,000 order points through a single portal, US Foods more effectively enforces their brand standards and makes it easier for users to find the marketing assets they need.

National Vision, Inc. (NVI) is one of the largest optical retailers in the United States, operating over 800 locations in 43 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. NVI employs over 7,000 people and their retail divisions include America’s Best Contacts & Eyeglasses, Eyeglass World, Vision Centers inside select Walmart stores, Vista Optical inside Fred Meyer and Optical Centers on select military bases. The company has plans to open over 40 new locations annually.

National Vision’s lab network, which has been recognized as one of the most efficient in the industry, consists domestic locations in St. Cloud, Minnesota, Salt Lake City, Utah and Lawrenceville, Georgia – along with two international locations in China and Mexico.

NVI’s corporate goals are focused on providing consumers with high efficiency, low cost, high quality and fast turnaround time.

“We are excited to be moving forward with SupplyLogic. It’s the type of partnership we seek, that becomes a contributor to aiding us in the delivery of our corporate mission, which is to help people, by making quality eye care and eyewear more affordable and accessible.”— Bruce Steffey, President and COO, National Vision Inc.

Challenge

With a strategic private equity investment from KKR, it was clear that he current state of the company’s marketing supply chain was unable to meet the aggressive growth target of opening 60 new stores a year.

National Vision needed to streamline store ordering and delivery of print, marketing communications, and branded merchandise to improve regulatory compliance and enable employees to focus on customer care and satisfaction – rather than marketing operations. The process of ordering and managing these materials was distracting to retail workers who needed to focus on the customer’s experience.

Solution

After conducting an optimization assessment, SupplyLogic built a custom solution for NVI, focused on enabling store growth and streamlining their marketing operations function. The solution combined two full-time, on site subject matter experts working in the company’s headquarters, supported by a national shared services team consisting of software experts, business analysts, and certified suppliers. SupplyLogic also delivered a unified e-commerce platform allowing NVI retail employees to more efficiently order marketing communications and operational documents.

Productivity Gains – SupplyLogic's enterprise e-commerce platform has reduced order process times by 75% - and simplified the experience of store employees

Brand Continuity – By partnering with SupplyLogic, NVI was able to consolidate seven individual ordering portals into one fully integrated platform, accessed by all 800 stores. This resulted in 100% adoption rate across the enterprise.

1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. operates as a florist and gift retailer in the United States. For more than 35 years, 1-800-FLOWERS® (1-800-356-9377 or www.1800flowers.com) has been helping deliver smiles for our customers with gifts for every occasion, including fresh flowers and the finest selection of plants, gift baskets, gourmet foods, confections, candles, balloons, and plush stuffed animals. Today, 1-800-Flowers employs approximately 400,000 people.

“Our relationship with SupplyLogic has exceeded our expectations in every respect. Their approach to indirect supply chain management is unique and has resulted in the delivery of quality products at lower costs with increased efficiencies and enterprise wide. We recommend SupplyLogic to companies desiring to lower indirect costs and increase efficiencies.”— Chris McCann, President, 1-800-flowers.com

Challenge

With ten brands and thousands of products, 1-800-Flowers.com was seeking a solution to gain more control over their fractured print supply chain and branded materials spend. They were looking to save money, improve service to their employees and business units, while freeing up resources to focus on higher value activities.

Solution

Leveraging SupplyLogic’s methodology, all brands and business units now have a streamlined process for design, ordering, production, and fulfillment of print, marketing communications and branded merchandise. Because the process is centralized, 1-800-Flowers.com has created leverage and economies of scale.

SupplyLogic deployed a centralized ecommerce platform enabling each business unit to define their unique marketing requirements. Innovations such as personalized trigger marketing, PURLs, and rewards programs have been implemented more effectively throughout the organization. In the end, the company is better able to control and analyze performance results at the enterprise level, while individual requesters are able to see the status of their projects in real time.

Results

The centralization of multiple business unit processes into a single approach improved the experience of the company’s highly distributed 400,000 employees and created significant enterprise value.

For more than 20 years, Asurion’s innovation and dedication to delighting customers has made it the preferred provider of technology protection for the world’s largest wireless carriers, retailers, and device manufacturers. Asurion’s 16,000 global employees support 280 million consumers with an award-winning experience that has set the standard in the industry. The company’s solutions include premier support that enables consumers to fully utilize their digital devices and products; protect privacy; facilitate rapid replacement of lost, stolen, damaged, or malfunctioning devices.

“SupplyLogic has come in and done precisely what they promised to do. Now, we’re expanding the scope of their engagement to bring their expertise and benefits to new areas of our marketing such as point of purchase materials and premium and promotional items.”— Tim Omaggio, Senior Director, Communications, Asurion

Challenge

Asurion had consolidated its print, marketing communications, and branded merchandise process to three principle vendors, each with their own specialty. While this was convenient for administrative purposes, the arrangement lacked competitive tension among the supplier panel, resulting in higher costs, lower quality, and a lack of innovation. Additionally, Asurion had relinquished many key procurement activities to its suppliers, creating a lack of control and increased risk to the business.

Solution

After conducting a thorough optimization analysis of Asurion’s print procurement processes, SupplyLogic experts introduced competitive tension back into the print procurement system by moving from three to 12 vendors. Adding technology to the procurement process improved visibility and reporting. And SupplyLogic enhanced Asurion’s procurement team – adding consulting, planning, and execution expertise. By taking headcount from 3.5 to 6 people, the new team is able to assign work to specific supply partners based on their individual capabilities, strengths, cost structures, and skills.

Results

Asurion executives are now looking for opportunities to expand the program into other areas of the supply chain, including point of purchase materials, marketing communications, and branded merchandise and associated logistics functions. SupplyLogic continues to solve for new inefficiencies, and look for improved ways for Asurion to track and manage programs.

Del Monte Foods, Inc. is one of the country’s largest producers, distributors and marketers of premium quality, branded food products for the U.S. retail market. The Company also produces and distributes private label food products as well. With 7,800 employees and Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Del Monte Foods is one of the most recognized brands in world.

“We have realized many benefits which include leveraging our collective buying power and transferring management related expense associated with sourcing, vendor and inventory management to SupplyLogic. Our internal customers enjoy the benefits of a self-serve ordering portal for all branded materials. We continue to create efficiencies in the way we work.”— Del Monte

Challenge

As a leading food processing organization that had spent years focusing on manufacturing plant efficiency, Del Monte was faced with the challenge of creating a savings solution for products and materials that help market their brand. The objective was to deliver significant efficiencies while ensuring Del Monte’s brand integrity at all times.

The decentralized nature of the company’s corporate footprint made it extremely difficult to drive standardization in areas that were outside of their core manufacturing expertise. Through a strategic relationship with KKR, SupplyLogic was introduced to the Corporate Services group at Del Monte to bring specialized knowledge of the print, marketing communications, and branded merchandise categories. The expectation was that SupplyLogic would provide category expertise plus additional skills in sourcing, technology integration and service execution.

Solution

SupplyLogic created an enterprise wide brand delivery solution for Del Monte. The solution allows corporate services and marketing to control brand and ensure compliance with corporate standards, while empowering the end-user community to requisition marketing and operational materials to support their businesses, in alignment with their local market demands.

Results

The SupplyLogic methodology has delivered

• Visibility and control of non-core spend in the print, marketing communications, and branded merchandise categories
• Net savings of 17.5% to Del Monte after year two of contract, by aggregating spend and applying the right amount of competitive tension to the supply base.
• Institution of SupplyLogic’s 408 point supplier audit process to ensure all suppliers are compliant with the Del Monte program
• Contractually managed service levels and robust governance structure led by a dedicated account team.
• Improved artwork control across all media, contained in a Del Monte-owned and SupplyLogic-managed digital asset management (DAM) system.

Millions of investors and independent registered investment advisors (RIAs) have turned to TD Ameritrade to help make investing and trading easier. Whether online or over the phone; in a branch or with an independent RIA; as a first-timer or sophisticated trader; our clients want to take control, and we help them decide how - bringing Wall Street to Main Street for more than 40 years. TD Ameritrade has time and again been recognized as a leader in investment services.

“SuppyLogic took a very deep dive into our operations and came up with a comprehensive plan that not only saved us money, but time and trouble too. In our world of online trading where milliseconds count, they have exceeded projected savings and given our business a boost right out of the gate."— Christopher Kienle, Managing Director, Marketing

Challenge

Amid rapid growth across the United States, TD Ameritrade found an increasing need to support its sales organization to achieve its objectives. This put heavy demands on the company’s print and marketing communications channel, which is highly dispersed across the US and internationally. SEC regulations and other compliance reporting needs compounded the situation by weighing down the financial print function.

TD Ameritrade understood that this essential business process was not a core competency, and sought a more innovative approach to print – one that would help manage risk, support growth and control costs. The company turned to SupplyLogic to deliver a solution.

Solution

SupplyLogic built a standardized service to more efficiently and effectively meet TDA’s complex regional needs. This solution reduced the company’s six independent procurement platforms to a single portal where all regional teams could requisition printed materials more simply at a lower cost with greater flexibility, yet greater brand consistency. SupplyLogic subject matter experts working on-site in Jersey City, NJ and Omaha, NE facilities now place these orders directly with a newly expanded vendor panel. SupplyLogic’s analytics center in Illinois, which rates vendors along 408 criteria, provides mobile dashboards to the client marketing team, as the new system mines transactional data to better understand costs and the origins of print demand, while tracking campaign and compliance progress.

Results

Through its partnership with SupplyLogic, all regional teams now requisition printed materials more simply and at a lower cost – with greater flexibility and brand consistency.

TD Ameritrade is realizing greater than 27 percent savings across all of its print, marketing communications, and branded merchandise categories. The company also has significantly improved internal analytics to support their decision-making process.
In the end, TD Ameritrade is extremely satisfied – and is recommending SupplyLogic to other organizations.